LA Times Article on Session Drummers

In Sunday's (June 15) edition of the LA Times' Calendar Section pages E1 & E45, there was an article on the decline of session drummers due to the use of drum machines. Hal Blaine, Jim Keltner, and Rick Marotta were interviewed for the article.

hi,
is there a website where we can read this article? I'm from france and i don't receive the LA Times...
thanks

I got the LA Times website up via Google, looked at today's online news, clicked on the
Calendar icon/sidebar...and there was the ( very interesting) article, which, if you search the LA Times'archive, they want to charge you $$$$ to read... [img]cool.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/smarty.gif[/img]

This seems like the same old story.... I remember seeing Phil Ehart, the drummer for Kansas, in a clinic back in 1984, and he was talking about all the off beat, creative stuff he does, in order to "Stay ahead of the drum machines". I still think there's no substitute for the subtlety, nuance, and groove that you get from a real person.

I would think that the more unnerving thing for studio musicians/drummers would be the advent of Pro Tools, where a drummer can lay down a few tracks that he thinks really sucked, and wants another go at the tune, but the producer says, " I have all I need. Thanks.", and proceeds to stitch together the track, and shift back beats, fills, etc as needed. (Franken-track!)

drum4fun,

Can you give us a summary of what the article said?

Thanks!

Here you go...

http://www.calendarlive.com/cl-ca-bo...,3854658.story

More on session drummers;

http://www.sessiondrummer.co.uk/

http://www.carlolittle.com/

Thanx - fun, johnny, danny, & PP for that/those...
...benny - lol, "Franken-tracks"...
while i agree w/ u, i will also say that i'd rather listen to a real drummer who's been "pro-tooled" than all those blasted top-40 tunes w/ those stiff-as-a-statues'-butt drum machine tracks...
But, now, those same machines in the hands of [& along w/ the playing of], say, a VC/DW/VD/DC/TL/RG [/great drummer], now THAT'S a completely diff story altogether [img]eek.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/thumbs_up.gif[/img] [img]cool.gif[/img] [img]wink.gif[/img]

btw - i had the fortune of meeting/briefly speaking to Hal in Orlando, FL, around '88 [along w Mike Terrana, Scott Travis, & Liberty DeVitto]; a very nice & informative guy... while self-admittedly "not a chops guy; [I'm] more of a groove guy," he nevertheless is an important part of the studio/recorded drums heritage... [however, i have never had the fortune of meeting Keltner or either of the Marottas] ;=) :=(

<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ June 16, 2003 08:40 PM: Message edited by: FuseU1 ]</font>

link? anyways like Omar says its kinda sad but u just have to adjust with the times and needs...

Aronoff is probably my favorite LA Studio guy, his drumming is so uplifting, cheerful and inspiring like his character.

I was listening to his playing from Burning For Buddy awhile ago, killer playing especially for a rock drummer [img]rolleyes.gif[/img]

Thanks ladanny for posting the link to the article.